Sunday, September 21, 2008

John V tagged me ages ago to reveal six unspectacular things about myself.

1. I still sleep with a night light on. When the husband is away, I sleep with ALL the lights on.2. I can't tread water. In two years of obligatory swimming class, I managed to learn the forward crawl, the backstroke, the breaststroke and the dolphin kick... but not how to stop myself from drowning. 3. I like to read literary fiction in the —erm— toilet.4. I'm a Word Spy aficionado.5. I have eaten rabbit and asked for a second serving.6. From our island-hopping tour yesterday, I realize I prefer visiting ex-mental institutes, ex-leper colonies, etc to nature walks and mushroom-picking.

• The Bundles book is finally ready for order at Texture Press. Yay! I still haven't seen the physical copy, but Valerie says it's looking good. We were worried they wouldn't managed to center the spine text, but they did.

• One of my serial sonnets, Raindrop Prelude received Honorable Mention in the 2008 Biscuit International Poetry Prize. The prize money was £25 (+£5 for the exchange), but I opted for 4 poetry books from their catalog... the publisher mentioned he threw in an extra book by Maureen Almond and their audio CD of short stories. Any more thrilled than this and I'd be drunk and laughing off a building.

I was excited to see that Annie Bien, a 30:30 person herself, won the 3rd Prize. Woooohooo! Go send her flowers and hugs!

• Received three acceptance e-mails within a 24-hour period... which nicely balances my standing record of three rejections within a 24-hour period.

• Ever since I stopped drinking alcohol during the week, I haven't been able to drink much over the weekend. After the second half-glass of wine, I get warning bells that chime: Vomit Season! Vomit Season! in my mind. OH NO. This is SO wrong. As in, I have a day-trip to Napa Valley in November to think of for crying out loud.

• The season here has gone from summer to winter in one snap of the fingers. As an excuse to warm myself, I've purchased a nice bottle of Marzemino. Yuk yuk yuk!

• Started yoga class again this week (my 4th year at it). Tuesday and Thursday. I woke up Friday morning thinking I was paralyzed. Apparently, there are muscles around the ribs that could create pain. And our yoga instructors actually told us, "Because you're all rusty, let's start off nice and easy."

• Because we're leaving on November 2 for San Francisco, my sister called to say that she won't be hosting a Halloween party this year (sigh). However, she said that I can wear her genie costume and give candies to the children (oooooh). She also has a nun's habit, but that might be too scary for everyone. Hee.

• Two ticklish poems, Genesis and About Your Bucket may be found in the September issue of Defenestration — a neat 'zine to read when you're drunk or want to be but can't go to the supermarket because your camouflage outfit is still in the washer.

Submission sent: 11 July 2008 Reply date: 11 September 2008

• past simple has my three prose poems, with one title longer than the other, in their 5th issue. Audio recording included. Just discovered this neat 'zine with a bent for the experimental, the surreal, the plain-jane weird while hopping from one link to another. Went through the fab archives and just craved for more.

Submission sent: 11 August 2008 Reply date: 12 September 2008

• Rumble is primarily a micro-fiction magazine, but they do publish poetry! Which is why The Body At Rest can be found in their September 2008 issue.

Submission sent: 13 August 2008 Reply date: 12 September 2008

Recent acceptances:

• Other Poetry accepted my poem, A Photography Student Interrupts a Mosquito for an upcoming issue.

Submission sent: 26 April 2008 Reply date: 1 September 2008

They have a 3-4 months response time — they usually send a note within this time bracket to say whether or not any of your poems made it to the final round. Then a 2-4 weeks wait before they write back with good or bad news. It's a gorgeous print magazine — and a paying market to boot.

Monday, September 01, 2008

We celebrate the end of summer and the arrival of winter with the visual artistry of Héctor Pineda García; poetry by Jillian Bledsoe, Allan Peterson, Karin Randolph, Paul Siegell, Rina Terry, David Michael Wolach, and Changming Yuan; fiction by John Bruce, Kate Evans, and Nathan Leslie; plus an exclusive interview with Jayne Pupek.

Jayne was lovely enough to send me a copy of Tomato Girl and I've gone bonkers over it ever since.

Stuff of which A's days are made of —

• Finished my 13th round in 30:30 without a hitch. Impressive. Valerie and I are doing collaboems for the first time and it's certainly more fun than writing alone.

• Have found a new love: writing fiction. This is really strange for me since I used to hate it... but now I wake up every morning thinking: "Now what would I have Mr Tickler or some other nut do today?"

• For some strange reason, I've stopped drinking alcohol during weekdays. It may or may not be because the husband has recently taken to cooking calf's liver for dinner. Hee. I've been waiting expectantly for my hands to shake, like in my poems, but so far have been disappointed.

• Migraine. Cured, in part, by vanilla ice cream.

• Obsession about calling ahead for a baked potato at Ponder Steakhouse in Ponder, Texas. Valerie's fault for mentioning it twice — once in a poem, and then in an old story we did together. I just connected the two dots and haven't been the same since. I still find it hard to believe that such a place really exists!

• Watching past seasons of Stargate Atlantis and Spooks. Am particularly tickled that MI5 (Spooks) uses the same Mac as I do. Makes me feel all 007 while I submit my poems and prepare the pages of Press 1.

• What else? I'm trying to enjoy the last 7 days of being a 33-year-old. Afterwards, I think I get to be prime roadkill material.

About Me

Arlene Ang is the author of "The Desecration of Doves" (2005), "Secret Love Poems" (Rubicon Press, 2007), and a collaborative book with Valerie Fox, "Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon" (Texture Press, 2008). Her third full-length collection, "Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind of Adieu" was published by Cinnamon Press in 2010. Her poems have appeared in Ambit, Caketrain, Diagram, Poetry Ireland, Poet Lore, Rattle, Salt Hill as well as the Best of the Web anthologies 2008 and 2009 (Dzanc Books). She lives in Spinea, Italy where she serves as staff editor for The Pedestal Magazine and Press 1. Website: www.leafscape.org